


Deck the Halls

by procrastinationfairy



Category: Batman (Comics), Robin (Comics), Superboy (Comics), Superman (Comics)
Genre: Christmas, Divorced Tim, Gen, Past Kon-El | Conner Kent/Original Female Character, Pre-Relationship, Semi-Batman Beyond AU, Widower Kon, second love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-25
Updated: 2020-12-25
Packaged: 2021-03-11 00:26:58
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,950
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28306017
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/procrastinationfairy/pseuds/procrastinationfairy
Summary: It isn’t like Mom was the only one who went out on holidays. Mom and Pa were both so full of life, so eager to make every holiday special. But with Mom gone, Robin thinks she’s kind of lost Pa too.Uncle Tim turns up on December 22nd. Robin is Uncle Tim’s favorite; she’s pretty sure. She is named after him, and he came to visit a lot more when she was little. (“Sweetheart, that’s because Tim is very busy at work now,” Pa always says, but Robin knows the truth.) Robin is the most excited when he knocks on their apartment door and comes in with a mixture of decorations that look scrounged from the bargain bin.“I’m not a big holiday person,” Uncle Tim says as he sets down the decorations, “but I figured your mom might want her grave decorated. It’s like she’s celebrating too, right?”//a vaguely batman beyond au without actually touching anything batman beyond
Relationships: Tim Drake/Kon-El | Conner Kent
Comments: 7
Kudos: 35





	Deck the Halls

**Author's Note:**

> I only watched a little Batman Beyond as a kid, but I really remember liking it. That said, as an adult, I’m a little too squicked out by some of the Choices made with the characters. Anyway, this is a vaguely Batman Beyond AU, where Terry McGinnis is/will be (not sure how far along this is set yet because I’m bad at math) Batman, and the Batfamily has dispersed in various ways. The notes at the end explain the AU in more detail, if you’re interested. Anyway, hope you enjoy this! I know it's a bit of a mess, but it was stuck in my head. Now it's your problem. I’m on tumblr at spideylovesgwendy. Feel free to talk to me about anything DC!

**December 22, Year 1**

The first Christmas is the hardest.

Robin hears that from everyone in her family, over and over. Pawpaw, Grandma, Uncle Jon—the only one silent is Pa, and she thinks Pa is right. It doesn’t matter if it’s the hardest. Robin doesn’t want Christmas to be something to get _through._ She wants to decorate the tree with Mom and make a yule log cake and stuff her siblings' stockings now that she’s old enough to know Santa isn’t real.

Mom had promised she could last year, when she’d slipped into her parents’ bed and asked them if Santa was _really_ just parents.

But Mom isn’t here, and Robin doesn’t feel up to reminding Pa. He’d done the Christmas shopping by himself, and that had been gifts only. It isn’t like Mom was the only one who went out on holidays. Mom and Pa were both so full of life, so eager to make every holiday special. But with Mom gone, Robin thinks she’s kind of lost Pa too.

Uncle Tim turns up on December 22nd. Robin is Uncle Tim’s favorite; she’s pretty sure. She is named after him, and he came to visit a lot more when she was little. (“Sweetheart, that’s because Tim is very busy at work now,” Pa always says, but Robin knows the truth.) Robin is the most excited when he knocks on their apartment door and comes in with a mixture of decorations that look scrounged from the bargain bin, the man himself decked out in a truly abysmal holiday sweater with holes at the elbow.

“I’m not a big holiday person,” Uncle Tim says as he sets down the decorations, “but I figured your mom might want her grave decorated. It’s like she’s celebrating too, right? We can do that when Pa gets off work.”

“Thanks for coming,” Pa says. Like most days, he looks tired now, and he hasn’t done his hair in days. Pa normally fusses with his hair into just the right amount of curls on top _every day._ “I know it’s short notice.”

Uncle Tim shrugs. “Not like I have anything to do. Kelcie didn’t exactly leave a standing invitation to her parents’ in the divorce.”

Pa half-snorts. “Like you’d want to visit them.”

Uncle Tim rolls his eyes and turns his attention to Robin. “Hey, kid. Where should we begin?”

The apartment isn’t decorated at all, so Robin and Uncle Tim start there while Pa heads back to his office to start his afternoon radio show. Sandy helps when she wakes up from her nap, but Al is still sleeping. He’s only one, after all. It takes two hours, as Uncle Tim realized half the bulbs in the string of lights were shorting out, and he spent that time focused on fixing the wires. But when they’re done, the house is lit up, almost like Mom was there. 

(It’s not, really: Mom and Uncle Tim are both very orderly with how they decorate, but Mom’s seemed to vibrate with life. Uncle Tim’s is there, but it’s not the same. It’s something though. Robin will take what she can get.)

“Pa has to work _forever_ today. He wasn’t even s’posed to. Lynne was supposed to do the show,” Robin says when Uncle Tim lowers Sandy from putting the tree topper on. It should be Robin’s year, but Sandy threw a fit. Robin doesn’t want to fight. She doesn’t even care that much. It still makes her kind of mad when Sandy sticks her tongue out.

“I know,” Uncle Tim says. He flops down on the couch like he always does after a few hours with the Kent family. Robin wonders why. Mom and Pa joked once that he’s out of shape because he’s not in the business, but Robin thinks it’s just because he doesn’t have kids. Obviously, this means he should get some kids for them to play with, but Uncle Tim laughs every time. It’s a shame he’s not married anymore though. It’d be nice. “He told me. That’s why I came to hang out. It’s more fun when your pa isn’t around to watch us, isn’t it?”

Sandy giggles and nods conspiratorially. “Uncle Tim, can we make cookies too?” Her S’s sound slushy right now because she’s missing a front tooth, but she grins with all the intent of dragging her “uncle” into trouble. “Mom always helped us make cookies.”

Uncle Tim’s face blanches. He looks at the kitchen hesitantly. “I… guess so? You have cookie dough in there?”

They don’t. They slam together something that looks like a dough from memory for the sugar cookies, and for the chocolate chip, they read a recipe off the bag. It should be fine, even if it’s not exactly Mom’s recipe.

When Pa gets off work and comes out of his office at 5:00, the kitchen is smoky, and two sets of cookies lie on the counter. The sugar cookies look fine, but the chocolate chips are blackened on the edges, soggy in the middle.

“I said to watch my kids, not my kitchen. You’re not _allowed_ in the kitchen,” Pa says. He doesn’t quite sound angry, but Robin and Sandy hide behind Uncle Tim’s legs anyway.

“The kids wanted to make cookies, Kon. I figured…” Uncle Tim waves his hand. They shoot each other looks, which is kind of annoying because Robin _knows_ that Uncle Tim has to have some sort of secret superpower to communicate with Pa and Pa only. Even if they won’t admit it. “Anyway, we didn’t burn the kitchen down _and_ we had fun, so let’s count that as a win.”

Pa blinks and rubs his fingers across the bridge of his nose. “I was just going to buy cookies this year. Maybe like a gingerbread house kit?” he says. He reaches for one of the sugar cookies and takes a bite. “Oh, fu— Tim, what the—? What did you make these out of? Play-Doh?”

Uncle Tim bristles. “They’re not that bad,” he says. He picks one up as well and takes a bite. He chews and swallows without a gag before setting the rest of the cookie down.

“Let me try!” Robin says. She snatches another and nibbles. _Oh._ Sandy, who always steals her food, sneaks a bite as well.

“Blegh!” Sandy grabs the hem of Uncle Tim’s sweater and wipes her tongue off.

“Gross, Sandy, don’t—”

“That’s what you get. You made this mess. You clean it up.” Pa runs a hand through his hair, but he’s smiling now. It’s been a while since Robin remembers Pa smiling. She’s glad Uncle Tim came by. He can always make Pa smile.

It’s not that bad even if they have to spend the rest of the day cleaning the kitchen. Somehow, one of the cookies fell and melded inside the oven, so Pa makes Uncle Tim crawl half-in to clean. He and Sandy keep joking about pushing him like Hansel and Gretel. Not exactly Christmas-themed, but it’s nice to have the house feeling full again.

It’s not Christmas with Mom, but it’s still Christmas.

* * *

**December 23, Year 3**

On December 23rd, Robin calls Uncle Tim. She’s not yet out of school, which she thinks is evil. She curses Luthor Middle School and blames it on Grandpa. She knows it’s just named after him, but there’s got to be something deeper, a conspiracy. 

“They went to Mom’s grave without me!” Robin laments. Uncle Tim is at work, but his assistant Ms. Tam patched her through anyway, probably because she was crying. She and Sandy worked it out the year before that Ms. Tam is easier to get past if they cry. “They went to Mom’s grave, and they decorated, and—”

 _“When was this?”_ Uncle Tim asks. She hears the clacking of keys. He’s still working. Robin isn’t offended. Uncle Tim is _always_ working.

“Yesterday! I had a big test, and I had to study, and Pa said they needed to decorate _now,_ and…” Robin sniffles.

 _“So they went without you,”_ Uncle Tim says. _“You’re mad?”_

Of course Robin is mad. The first year, Uncle Tim took all the kids (Pa stayed home, insisting the kitchen wasn’t clean yet), and Robin, a big girl of ten, was the one who took charge. Last year, Pa took over, but Robin still directed the show. Decorating Mom’s grave is _her_ thing, if not Uncle Tim’s thing. It’s not fair that they went without her. She rubs her eyes with the back of her hand and throws another pillow at her bedroom door because she knows Pa can hear it. “They went without me,” she repeats.

Uncle Tim is quiet for a moment. He shuffles with something before he speaks again. _“Did you tell them you could go today?”_

Robin blinks. “I shouldn’t have to,” she says.

_“No, maybe not. Your pa should have asked if you could go another day. But do you know why he said you had to go yesterday?”_

Robin doesn’t. She doesn’t _care._ All that matters is they went without her, and Sandy probably put the stupid tree topper on crooked and Al probably pulled a string of lights in two again. Pa probably laughed and told Mom he loves her before they all went to get ice cream. They did it without her.

 _“Robin,”_ Uncle Tim sighs. Suddenly, she’s mad at him too. She’s mad at his stupid cool and collected voice, the way he pronounces all of his words so distinctly in that Bristol accent that makes him sound like a snob. She’s mad that he’s in Gotham, and he’s not going to come to visit until Christmas Day. She’s mad that he doesn’t seem to care about her problems, and she’s mad that she has to talk to Uncle Tim and not Mom because she can’t even go to her mom’s grave by herself. _“Your pa had plans for today. He wanted to do some new traditions with your family. I know it’s hard, but things change. He’s trying, you know. You’re all growing up. He wants the holidays to be as special for Al and Sandy as they were when you were young.”_

“So I just get left out?” Robin asks. She turns over and pulls the blankets up over her head. “Because I remember Mom, and Sandy barely does, and Al doesn’t at all?”

_“No. No, that’s not—Hey, not now, Tam can get you the papers you need—Robin, hold on.”_

Robin picked out half of her decorations with Mom when she was seven. She can’t bear to replace them, but at twelve, she feels too kiddish with Winnie the Pooh staring from her bedroom wall. Mom loved Winnie the Pooh. She even dressed the family up for Halloween one year. She was Piglet, complete with her short hair dyed pink. Robin misses Mom more than ever. 

_“Robin?”_ Uncle Tim is back, and at least he sounds apologetic. _“Look, I’m not telling you there’s no reason to be mad. You can be hurt. I don’t know why Kon thought it was okay to go without you. But I can’t fix this problem for you. You have to tell your pa why you’re hurt. And remember that this is hard for him too. He tries. And he really wanted to do something special for you this year.”_

She hesitates. “What is it?” She needs to know if it’s worth it. 

Uncle Tim snorts. _“Hey, I’m no snitch. Why don’t you go tell Pa why you’re mad instead of throwing pillows at the door?”_

“Wha—? How’d you know?” Robin asks. Her eyes flit around the room.

_“My secret. One more thing. If I remember anything from being twelve, it’s this: I always told people things in a much nastier way than I meant to. I doubt you were trying to hurt your dad’s feelings, but how exactly did you tell him you were too busy to decorate?”_

Robin purses her lips. She’s not _sure_ , but she thinks she may have said, “I can’t put up stupid lights when I have a history test!” before screaming into her pillow. 

_“I know this time of year is hard. I remember,”_ Uncle Tim adds. _“Call me if you need to talk again. I have a meeting, but I can leave if you need something. Still, I think you’ll be busy…”_

“Okay,” Robin agrees, exhaling through her nose. She swings her legs over the side of her bed, feet hitting the carpet. Pa says he thinks she’ll be tall like him. She feels that, limbs already almost too much to control. “Thanks, Uncle Tim. I’m sorry I interrupted you.”

 _“It’s fine. I can make time for you,”_ he says. _“I’ll see you on Christmas. Bye, Robin.”_

Pa did have plans, it turns out. Now that Al’s powers have kicked in, they took a trip to ice skate on the moon, which is something they’d never be able to do for Christmas with Mom, since she was fully human. It stings a little, but in a new way, different from making cookies with Pa or Uncle Tim. Robin wants to press at that wound until it stops hurting, so she chases Sandy and Al around. Sandy uses Pa’s phone to take pictures to send to the rest of the family. Robin thinks Mom would have wanted them to enjoy this.

* * *

**December 24, Year 6**

Uncle Tim gets Christmas Eve off this year, as not only has he finished all of his work with Drake Industries but none of the superhero teams have anything big going on. Robin tried to hint that he could totally fund _her_ new team too, but he’d merely quirked his lips and asked if she had any other team members yet. Fair point, but still annoying.

It’s nice, anyway, to have Uncle Tim around without anyone else in the family. On Christmas Day, they’ll visit Pawpaw and Grandma and Uncle Jon, but for now, it’s just the family and Uncle Tim.

“What did you do for Christmas when you were little, Uncle Tim?” Al asks as he plays (very sadly) with his half-broken race car which keeps turning and coincidentally knocking into Pa’s feet. He’s six now, so he definitely gets what he’s doing. Robin wonders if he realizes the only reason Pa or Uncle Tim haven’t fixed it is that he’s getting a new one for Christmas.

Uncle Tim shrugs. “Nothing special. My mom was Jewish, so she didn’t really celebrate. Dad mostly did a little token celebration at the company, but none of us were religious anyway. It was kind of a toss-up whether we’d remember to celebrate Chanukah or Christmas at all.”

Robin wonders, for half a second, why he doesn’t talk about his _other_ parent, but she knows that’s dumb. Uncle Tim has never mentioned Bruce Wayne once in the time she’s known him. She wouldn’t even know that he was adopted if she hadn’t learned about it in a rundown of superhero history from Pa. Now that she knows, she’s curious. Everyone knows that Gotham is different now, absent the family, and she wonders, sometimes, why Uncle Tim put down the mask in the first place. What happened?

“That’s sad,” Sandy says. She snaps a picture with the film camera Uncle Tim got her for Christmas last year. Robin can tell she’s itching to develop this year’s pictures already, as she keeps bragging that she’s getting the hang of it. When she waves the camera in front of her face, Pa draws Uncle Tim closer with an arm around the shoulder and flashes a smile. They make a nice image, Pa in his leather jacket with a neat fade cut, Uncle Tim in another hideous sweater. Sandy takes another shot. “Perfect!”

There’s something bright in her eyes. Robin is nervous, even more so when Sandy runs to the bathroom and then yells for Robin to help and Robin _only._

“What’s wrong?” Robin asks as she slips inside.

“Body stuff!” Sandy insists verbally. She holds her finger to her lips and gestures to her lead-lined notebook, specially made for keeping secrets from Pa. _Do you think Pa and Uncle Tim will get married?_

Robin feels like her lungs collapsed. She’s fifteen now. It’s been years since Mom died. She laughs when single parents at her school hit on Pa at her basketball games. But the thought of Pa and Uncle Tim makes her feel sick. “Uh…”

Sandy gestures to the paper forcefully. Robin swallows.

“You’re only ten. You’re too young for body stuff,” she says, eager to get out of the room. She scribbles down her note back quickly. _No._

“I am not. Some people get them at ten,” Sandy says definitively. _But Pa smiles special at Uncle Tim, and they hug a lot, and Uncle Tim is always here for us._

Robin can think of a thousand reasons to explain Sandy’s away. Uncle Tim is Pa’s best friend. Uncle Tim is basically family. It doesn’t mean anything. But it does, really.

Uncle Tim got divorced when Robin was a baby, and he laughs it off. He says marriage isn’t for him. Pa teases him about his old relationships, and Uncle Tim only shrugs. “I’ve got enough of a family with you,” he said, even when Mom was alive. But when Mom was alive, he’d wrap his arms around both of them, very friendly. Uncle Tim and Mom liked each other a lot, Robin knows. But…

_But._

Robin takes a deep breath. _No. They’re not going to get married. Pa still loves Mom._

Sandy purses her lips, almost a pout. _I think they should. It’d be cool if Uncle Tim lived here. We could just call him Tim, or maybe Dad._

Robin hates the thought. (She hates that she doesn’t hate it like she should.) She storms out of the bathroom and plops down next to her brother. The force is enough to knock over the tower of blocks he built to ram his car into. 

“Hey!”

“Shut up, _Allen,_ ” Robin snaps.

Uncle Tim gives her a look. She glares back at him. He sips his glass of wine. “I have a few phone calls to make, Kon. You have some family time with the kids,” he says. He places his hand on Pa’s shoulder as he stands, and Robin feels sick. She thinks of all the times Pa has leaned against Tim’s shoulder (Mom’s birthday, the anniversary of her death, any day that Pa is particularly—) and whispered, “I’m so glad you’re not in the field anymore. If I lost you too—” She thinks of earlier in the kitchen, when Uncle Tim helped clean the counter for their annual gingerbread competition and Pa kept pestering him by poking his sides with TTK. She thinks of the way Uncle Tim elbowed him, but almost with his full body, leaning into Pa’s chest. She thinks of her best friend Priya’s mom and stepmom, who touch like—

Would Mom want this? Would she be okay with Pa moving on? Probably. But with Uncle Tim?

Robin ignores him as best as she can. She can’t even think about it.

* * *

**December 25, Year 8**

Uncle Tim doesn’t come for Christmas.

Robin is seventeen, and this is her last Christmas at home before college. It’s supposed to be special. Aunt Cassie gave her a bundle of Amazonian trinkets for protection (“I know you have superpowers, but you may not always be protecting _yourself._ ”), and Uncle Bart gave her a bundle of takeout gift cards (“Trust me, you’ll appreciate it.”). Pawpaw and Grandma chipped in with Pa to buy her something big, which she’s about ninety percent sure is a new car. Uncle Jon keeps grinning and saying his gift goes with it, so she’s been excited all month. 

She doesn’t know if Uncle Tim got her anything. She hasn’t seen him in two months. Not since Dad heard that Uncle Tim suited up as some new hero with some old friends for a mission that no one will even mention. Robin only _just_ caught the gossip in the Watchtower when she stopped by to meet Uncle Jon for lunch on a Saturday.

Sandy and Al are mad about it too, and she has heard enough about it to last a lifetime in a week. Sandy, age twelve, keeps calling it “the big break-up” and Al, age eight, keeps asking _why_ Uncle Tim had to pick _now_ to fight with Pa.

Strangely, Robin wonders the same thing. She thinks she could almost be okay with Pa marrying Uncle Tim, even if she’s still sure neither of them have any intentions toward each other. It’s been years since her mom died, and she still misses Mom like crazy, especially at Christmas. But everyone was right. The first is the hardest, and it gets easier every year. She knows they’ve all had ways to move on. 

Uncle Tim has been part of it.

It feels strange not to have him around. She doesn’t know the details about why Pa and Uncle Tim are mad at each other, but she knows enough to tell it’s been ruining Christmas. Something bad happened, she’s sure, even though they won’t tell her. She may be a Super, but she’s still on the kiddie-level. Pa and Uncle Jon whisper League secrets to each other. That almost worries Robin, though she knows Uncle Tim is safe and sound in Gotham because she’s seen his Instagram. Still, it must be something big, since Uncle Jon gets tense too, any time someone mentions Uncle Tim or the big explosion in Gotham two months ago.

So Robin takes matters into her own hands. While Pawpaw and Uncle Jon try to shutter Grandma out of the kitchen and Pa takes Sandy and Al out back to ride the short hills of Uncle Jon’s farm, Robin texts Uncle Tim.

 _Robin  
_ You’re not celebrating alone, are you?

 _Uncle Tim  
_ Not a big fan of the holidays, remember?

 _Uncle Tim  
_ But no. I’m with family.

That’s news to Robin. Last she heard, Uncle Tim only sparingly talked to anyone other than their found family, as Pa called it. She can’t resist asking.

 _Robin  
_ Who?

 _Uncle Tim  
_ Does your pa know you’re asking? Siblings, mostly. We’re debating storming Wayne Manor. In honor of our grandfather. I’ll tell you about it sometime, okay?

 _Uncle Tim  
_ I know things are complicated right now. I want to tell you, but your family has different feelings on the subject. You’re almost an adult. If you still want to know when you go off to college, I’ll let you make your own decisions about what we did.

 _Robin  
_ Who’s we?

Uncle Tim doesn’t answer that. He shoots back a quick _Merry Christmas_ and resumes his own family activities, Robin supposes. She uses her vision and hearing to zero in on him, but she only sees enough to take note of the people (so many, most unknown to her, save for a man with brown skin and jet black hair dressed in green and gold that looks _familiar_ ) before deciding she doesn’t want to pry.

“Hey, kiddo,” Pa says as he comes back inside, Sandy and Al dangling from his arms. 

“Sandra, you are far too old for that behavior,” Robin sighs dramatically. Her sister flings herself in her direction instead, and they tumble onto the floor. Al jumps on top of them. Robin huffs, but she smiles when she looks up at Dad. He looks tired but happy. She won’t ruin the holidays for him. She hopes Uncle Tim has a good time with his family, and she hopes that if they’re meant to be, they’ll figure it out.

**Author's Note:**

> Bruce Wayne = retired  
> Terry McGinnis = Batman  
> Dick Grayson = prince consort of Tamaran (married to Kori, with two kids)  
> Barbara Gordon = mayor of Gotham  
> Jason Todd = English teacher (married to Roy, raising Lian)  
> Tim Drake = divorced majority shareholder/photographer/socialite, major backer of various superhero teams  
> Cass Cain = current superhero in Bludhaven  
> Stephanie Brown = doctor at the Thompkins clinic  
> Damian Wayne = current head of the League (but he’s MY noble demon)  
> Kon/Conner Kent = current Supernova of the Justice League (widower with three kids)  
> Jon Kent = current Superman of the Justice League (unmarried)


End file.
